Posts by Grant McDougall
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Labour's claims bring to mind - and I'm normally not given to quoting him - what a certain James Brendon Bolger once said in the early '90s about playing the race card:
"Good news on Friday, bad news on Monday."
In other words, it might get you some short-term media coverage and support, but basically isn't worth the hassle in the mid-to-long term.
Just watch when Parliament resumes. When Labour should be hammering the gov't on any number of things, let alone house prices, they'll instead have to spend valuable time a) fending off racism claims and, b) trying to explain their figures, which, as another neoliberal twit I'm normally not given to quoting, a certain GWB once said, "explaining is losing."
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I saw the Go-betweens just after 16 Lovers Lane came out in early '89 when they headlined Orientation; they were superb.
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Speaker: Honest Bastards & Dishonest Cowards, in reply to bob daktari,
I think the single thing labour need do is to offer up a vision of hope, hope to those so utterly devastated by this govt policies and those stuck in the middle watching their lifestyles crumble (but house prices go ballistic)
Hear, hear. Labour also needs to stick to its knitting. It needs to focus on the fundamentals - employment, welfare, health, education, housing, etc. Instead, there is a perception, rightly or wrongly, that it has been too focused on "identity politics", "political correctness", "minority issues", etc.
Unfortunately, such things are not vote winners. There is nothing wrong with these issues unto themselves, but they lack broad appeal.
They may have some appeal in Grey Lynn, but they sure as hell lack appeal in the provincial cities, many of which Labour held under Clark.Labour really needs to stick to the basics, not fringe issues.
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Well, us Highlanders' fans are pretty stoked. Hard luck, Canes. I was very impressed by how dignified Conrad Smith was at the press conference, too.
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I'd like to see the Nats booted out too, but unfortunately they have big numbers on their side. They have a massive caucus and even if they loose a few, they'll still get by.
Also, the public still - inexplicably - loves them; remember, National won the party vote in every electorate bar three last year. -
RIP jazz giant Ornette Coleman, too.
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The relationship between me, music and Apple is … complicated.
So, not a Beatles' fan, then ? Don't worry, I'll get me coat...
So, no Adele, Arctic Monkeys or The Prodigy.
You say that like that's a bad thing. Putting me coat on now...
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Hard News: Friday Music: Up the Charts, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Excellent, thanks for clearing that up Simon - great to hear it from the horse's mouth, as it were.
It was number one in every major centre so that also knackers the chart rig story.
Given the number of copies Tony Murdoch sold at Vibes in Gisborne, I suspect it was probably number one in every minor centre, too.
Didn't know it was Hauraki that sparked off the rumours.
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Perhaps more notably, the same conditions also saw the Screaming Mee Mees, a band we’d seen at the pub, vault to the top of the singles chart with ‘See Me Go’, in its first week of release.
As great and deserving a song as it is, I've heard several times from various reliable sources, that it was a fair bit due to one or two of the band members and their friends working in some of the record shops that kept sales figures and being quite *cough* generous with their statistics.
Maybe Simon Grigg can shed light on this ?
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In 1979, Joy Division’s ‘Transmission’ reached No.2. The following year, ‘Atmosphere’ and ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ entered at No.1. The Fall had their first Top 40 “hits” anywhere in the world, with ‘Totally Wired’ (No. 25) and ‘Lie Dream of a Casino Soul’ (No. 17).
LWTUA a #1 and Atmosphere a #6, charted in 1981, according to Wikipedia, which quotes RIANZ or the like. (I know this, because I wrote had a letter published in the SST last year about ’em…in connection with David Cunliffe’s being a JD fan…).
I’d be surprised if Transmission was a hit in ’79, either. As Prof. Graeme Downes has famously said “Ian Curtis was dead long before Joy Division records were available in New Zealand”.